CDR_Ret

Looks like you are using Sketchup. Nicely done!
 
Terry

Blocks are a great feature of CAD software as they allow multiple detailed assemblies to be inserted into the main file without size penalty, which in this case has already grown to almost half a gigabyte. This is shown here using the artillery example.
 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 
 

 
 

Welcome to the best place on the entire interweb!

I took my first stab a while back at making a single piece laser cut hatch grating.  This is a style used on Vanguard's grating set.  Here's a picture of one I cut out using some Maple, about 1.6mm thick.
 

 
It's not as clean looking as a machined or cut wooden grate, and there is a bit of risk that excessive visible grain in the wood will not look right.   But it's guaranteed to be at right angles, and it makes framing a "perfect" hatch a bit simpler.
 
To some extent the char is a drawback, but I like the "dirty" look of the grate, as this is more the style I like.  Also, a benefit of the laser char in the square holes is that it darkens the grating, creating more of that "and below is a dark area" illusion.  I actually applied flat varnish down in the cut holes to help fix the char so it wouldn't smudge.
 
To create them, you end up making two passes on the wood with the laser cutter:  a cut pass to make the holes and cut around the outside, and an etch (partial cut) to create a visual separation with the sections.  I've annotated the picture below with some red lines showing where the etch lines are.  The etch lines create the illusion of the vertical pieces being separate.
 

 
To make the cuts and etches, I used Inkscape (a free vector editing program) to create two patterns.   First the cut lines...

To create the above layout, I started by making a 1.6mm square, then began duplicating it at an even spacing until I had an area big enough for my grating.  Then I put a bounding box around it for a final separation cut. 
 
Then the etch lines, which I just created using the above pattern to let me know where they should be

I actually created these on top of each other in editor layers so that they would line up.  Here is a picture of them together in the editor.

Then I exported the cut and etch layers into separate SVG files (one for cut, one for etch), which I then passed to the Glowforge laser cutter to create the cut and etch tasks.
 
Here are a few things I've though of doing beyond this first attempt...
 
Just create an entire sheet of grating without any cut bounds.  Then I could just cut out any shape I wanted to any size (in grate grid square steps). If I want my grating to be a very specific size (width and height), it would be easy to just rescale the entire cut to match exactly the size I want.  Using individual grating strips, I can't resize the grate, as they are forced to be dimensional increments of the thickness of your wood. If putting a bounding cut around the outside of a sized grate, leave a few small gaps so that the cut doesn't go completely around the whole grate.  The main reason I'd do this is because when the outside cut completes, it will sometimes drop the piece of wood a small amount if it's not sitting flat on the cutting bed.  That means subsequent cuts and etches may not quite line up right.  Leaving the small gaps means the grate section won't fall down.

Beautiful work, Nate!

Hey Folks,
So I'm almost done with the boats and I'm starting to play around with their general position in relation to the brig.
 
Feedback welcome here:
 
The 31 foot-long boats are rather oversized for this Brig. Thus, they don't fit cleanly behind the aft channels. I'm not willing to redo the boats at the moment - I will eventually do several Launches, Pinnaces, etc. and will swap them out when I do - so in the meantime I have to decide whether to place the davit cranes behind the channels, between the spacing of the main shroud lines (extending beyond the channels), or affix rails atop the main deck... which would mean only one boat unless stacked like Russian nesting dolls... 
 
Any thoughts?
 

A very much loved aircraft type in the SAAF as well, good old British engineering at its best!

This topic reminded me of a joint US-UK naval exercise back in the Spring of 1975 that my squadron participated in. At that point I was a junior Naval Aviation Intelligence Officer assigned to an A-7E (Corsair II) squadron, VA-66, stationed at NAS Cecil Field in Pensacola, Florida. This was the year before I got my heart right and entered the Naval Nuclear Propulsion pipeline, and, ultimately, the submarine force.
 
The exercise involved both the USS Independence (CV-62) and the HMS Ark Royal (R07) operating together in the West Atlantic. The Ark Royal cross-decked a squadron of Buccaneers to the Indy and the Indy cross-decked a squadron of Corsair IIs. This was evidently a prolonged collaboration because the photos of the aircraft taken at Cecil Field in my collection were dated March/April, 1975, while the shipboard photo was dated May, 1975.
 
These photos were taken as Ektachrome slides, which were the thing back then. They're not great but they might be useful as a reference of operational aircraft. I failed to identify which squadron they belonged to but the date of deployment might narrow the choices.
 

This final photo shows a Buccaneer on the USS Independence flight deck. Several A-7Es are in the background.
 
Enjoy!
 
Terry

This topic reminded me of a joint US-UK naval exercise back in the Spring of 1975 that my squadron participated in. At that point I was a junior Naval Aviation Intelligence Officer assigned to an A-7E (Corsair II) squadron, VA-66, stationed at NAS Cecil Field in Pensacola, Florida. This was the year before I got my heart right and entered the Naval Nuclear Propulsion pipeline, and, ultimately, the submarine force.
 
The exercise involved both the USS Independence (CV-62) and the HMS Ark Royal (R07) operating together in the West Atlantic. The Ark Royal cross-decked a squadron of Buccaneers to the Indy and the Indy cross-decked a squadron of Corsair IIs. This was evidently a prolonged collaboration because the photos of the aircraft taken at Cecil Field in my collection were dated March/April, 1975, while the shipboard photo was dated May, 1975.
 
These photos were taken as Ektachrome slides, which were the thing back then. They're not great but they might be useful as a reference of operational aircraft. I failed to identify which squadron they belonged to but the date of deployment might narrow the choices.
 

This final photo shows a Buccaneer on the USS Independence flight deck. Several A-7Es are in the background.
 
Enjoy!
 
Terry

This topic reminded me of a joint US-UK naval exercise back in the Spring of 1975 that my squadron participated in. At that point I was a junior Naval Aviation Intelligence Officer assigned to an A-7E (Corsair II) squadron, VA-66, stationed at NAS Cecil Field in Pensacola, Florida. This was the year before I got my heart right and entered the Naval Nuclear Propulsion pipeline, and, ultimately, the submarine force.
 
The exercise involved both the USS Independence (CV-62) and the HMS Ark Royal (R07) operating together in the West Atlantic. The Ark Royal cross-decked a squadron of Buccaneers to the Indy and the Indy cross-decked a squadron of Corsair IIs. This was evidently a prolonged collaboration because the photos of the aircraft taken at Cecil Field in my collection were dated March/April, 1975, while the shipboard photo was dated May, 1975.
 
These photos were taken as Ektachrome slides, which were the thing back then. They're not great but they might be useful as a reference of operational aircraft. I failed to identify which squadron they belonged to but the date of deployment might narrow the choices.
 

This final photo shows a Buccaneer on the USS Independence flight deck. Several A-7Es are in the background.
 
Enjoy!
 
Terry

Thank you very much for sharing those stories and pictures Terry 😁. Knowing MSW there are probably some ex. RN on here who will know which Naval Air Squadron those Buccaneers belonged to. Those cross decking exercises must have taken a lot of training to achieve 😲

This topic reminded me of a joint US-UK naval exercise back in the Spring of 1975 that my squadron participated in. At that point I was a junior Naval Aviation Intelligence Officer assigned to an A-7E (Corsair II) squadron, VA-66, stationed at NAS Cecil Field in Pensacola, Florida. This was the year before I got my heart right and entered the Naval Nuclear Propulsion pipeline, and, ultimately, the submarine force.
 
The exercise involved both the USS Independence (CV-62) and the HMS Ark Royal (R07) operating together in the West Atlantic. The Ark Royal cross-decked a squadron of Buccaneers to the Indy and the Indy cross-decked a squadron of Corsair IIs. This was evidently a prolonged collaboration because the photos of the aircraft taken at Cecil Field in my collection were dated March/April, 1975, while the shipboard photo was dated May, 1975.
 
These photos were taken as Ektachrome slides, which were the thing back then. They're not great but they might be useful as a reference of operational aircraft. I failed to identify which squadron they belonged to but the date of deployment might narrow the choices.
 

This final photo shows a Buccaneer on the USS Independence flight deck. Several A-7Es are in the background.
 
Enjoy!
 
Terry

This topic reminded me of a joint US-UK naval exercise back in the Spring of 1975 that my squadron participated in. At that point I was a junior Naval Aviation Intelligence Officer assigned to an A-7E (Corsair II) squadron, VA-66, stationed at NAS Cecil Field in Pensacola, Florida. This was the year before I got my heart right and entered the Naval Nuclear Propulsion pipeline, and, ultimately, the submarine force.
 
The exercise involved both the USS Independence (CV-62) and the HMS Ark Royal (R07) operating together in the West Atlantic. The Ark Royal cross-decked a squadron of Buccaneers to the Indy and the Indy cross-decked a squadron of Corsair IIs. This was evidently a prolonged collaboration because the photos of the aircraft taken at Cecil Field in my collection were dated March/April, 1975, while the shipboard photo was dated May, 1975.
 
These photos were taken as Ektachrome slides, which were the thing back then. They're not great but they might be useful as a reference of operational aircraft. I failed to identify which squadron they belonged to but the date of deployment might narrow the choices.
 

This final photo shows a Buccaneer on the USS Independence flight deck. Several A-7Es are in the background.
 
Enjoy!
 
Terry

This topic reminded me of a joint US-UK naval exercise back in the Spring of 1975 that my squadron participated in. At that point I was a junior Naval Aviation Intelligence Officer assigned to an A-7E (Corsair II) squadron, VA-66, stationed at NAS Cecil Field in Pensacola, Florida. This was the year before I got my heart right and entered the Naval Nuclear Propulsion pipeline, and, ultimately, the submarine force.
 
The exercise involved both the USS Independence (CV-62) and the HMS Ark Royal (R07) operating together in the West Atlantic. The Ark Royal cross-decked a squadron of Buccaneers to the Indy and the Indy cross-decked a squadron of Corsair IIs. This was evidently a prolonged collaboration because the photos of the aircraft taken at Cecil Field in my collection were dated March/April, 1975, while the shipboard photo was dated May, 1975.
 
These photos were taken as Ektachrome slides, which were the thing back then. They're not great but they might be useful as a reference of operational aircraft. I failed to identify which squadron they belonged to but the date of deployment might narrow the choices.
 

This final photo shows a Buccaneer on the USS Independence flight deck. Several A-7Es are in the background.
 
Enjoy!
 
Terry

This topic reminded me of a joint US-UK naval exercise back in the Spring of 1975 that my squadron participated in. At that point I was a junior Naval Aviation Intelligence Officer assigned to an A-7E (Corsair II) squadron, VA-66, stationed at NAS Cecil Field in Pensacola, Florida. This was the year before I got my heart right and entered the Naval Nuclear Propulsion pipeline, and, ultimately, the submarine force.
 
The exercise involved both the USS Independence (CV-62) and the HMS Ark Royal (R07) operating together in the West Atlantic. The Ark Royal cross-decked a squadron of Buccaneers to the Indy and the Indy cross-decked a squadron of Corsair IIs. This was evidently a prolonged collaboration because the photos of the aircraft taken at Cecil Field in my collection were dated March/April, 1975, while the shipboard photo was dated May, 1975.
 
These photos were taken as Ektachrome slides, which were the thing back then. They're not great but they might be useful as a reference of operational aircraft. I failed to identify which squadron they belonged to but the date of deployment might narrow the choices.
 

This final photo shows a Buccaneer on the USS Independence flight deck. Several A-7Es are in the background.
 
Enjoy!
 
Terry

This topic reminded me of a joint US-UK naval exercise back in the Spring of 1975 that my squadron participated in. At that point I was a junior Naval Aviation Intelligence Officer assigned to an A-7E (Corsair II) squadron, VA-66, stationed at NAS Cecil Field in Pensacola, Florida. This was the year before I got my heart right and entered the Naval Nuclear Propulsion pipeline, and, ultimately, the submarine force.
 
The exercise involved both the USS Independence (CV-62) and the HMS Ark Royal (R07) operating together in the West Atlantic. The Ark Royal cross-decked a squadron of Buccaneers to the Indy and the Indy cross-decked a squadron of Corsair IIs. This was evidently a prolonged collaboration because the photos of the aircraft taken at Cecil Field in my collection were dated March/April, 1975, while the shipboard photo was dated May, 1975.
 
These photos were taken as Ektachrome slides, which were the thing back then. They're not great but they might be useful as a reference of operational aircraft. I failed to identify which squadron they belonged to but the date of deployment might narrow the choices.
 

This final photo shows a Buccaneer on the USS Independence flight deck. Several A-7Es are in the background.
 
Enjoy!
 
Terry

For the casual visitor and ignorant ones like me, SIB = "ship in bottle". (I had to go look for this term to learn what it meant....)
 
Terry

For the casual visitor and ignorant ones like me, SIB = "ship in bottle". (I had to go look for this term to learn what it meant....)
 
Terry

Another card model publisher which has been reviewed here on MSW is Seahorse. I wanted to learn more about this company and their products, so I went ahead and purchased their Armed Virginia Sloop kit. At 1/100 scale, the hull is pretty tiny at just about 7-1/2" long. I ordered some of the optional accessories, including the laser-cut gun carriage set, sails set, and laser-cut parts. The whole order cost me less than $25 shipped from Poland(!).
 
In a matter of about three weeks time, this is where it stands...

I'm still learning a lot about paper modeling, but this kit has so far been a very fast lesson. 
 
I'd only gotten it to try it out. But, it's small enough that I'm going to have to see it through to completion. Only thing is that it's been fairly easy up to this point, relatively speaking. Now, come all the tiny parts!
 
I found that there are a few other optional accessory sets that I didn't see when I got the kit, so I went ahead and ordered those. They include the dowels set (in beech), resin cannon barrels set, and laser-cut blocks set. So, add another $20 to my project costs. 
 
I'm really hoping to see some of these Seahorse builds here on MSW...

Unlike wooden ship models in their large boxes, card models do sorta lend themselves to hoarding, um, I mean "collecting."

One othes aspect of card I like: it is easier to cross boundaries to other 'types' of models: same tools, same (or very much so) skills, completely other result.
 

 

 
Jan

Just a quick render for fun before I start working on 'Rose' this evening
 

Looks very nice, but there are some little corrections that can be pointed out.
 
 

 
1) The entry seems too bluff underwater and looks unnatural. I understand you started without specific lines, but since you reference the Bellona, her lines at this place were definitely sharper.
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:'Dragon'_(1760);_'Superb'_(1760);_'Bellona'_(1760)_RMG_J3099.png
 

 
2) The roundhouses forward look a little too small. They were enclosed seats of ease, and they should fit a standing and sitting person:
 
(detail from
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:'Shrewsbury'_(1758)_RMG_J3158.png
)
 

 
3) Referencing the plans above you may consider moving the hawseholes closer to the keel. Their positions are always somewhat floating (and in different places on same plan sets or models of the same ship), but generally at least first of them should be with less offset.
 
https://www.rmg.co.uk/collections/objects/rmgc-object-66465
https://www.rmg.co.uk/collections/objects/rmgc-object-66464
https://www.rmg.co.uk/collections/objects/rmgc-object-66299

Leaving aside the recent discussion of hull details, I would most of all like to express my admiration for the way you have rendered the sails and rigging. I have never seen it done so well. I tip my hat for this beautiful work.
Ab

Finally showing some long overdue love to the stern:
The stern lantern has been completed, including mounting brackets. The taff rail has been modelled. Newel posts along the back have been placed (still missing supports along the sides, though I want these to look different)  Corbel-style relief carvings (baroque ornamentation) added beneath the davits. Floral scrollwork has been added to visually separate the gallery planking from undercarriage, as the angle between these is not overly pronounced. Red painted wood texture has been enhanced to show random areas of scuffing (similar to the yellow wood texture)